


His Greatest Dream

by Merfilly



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-29
Updated: 2009-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 11:31:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Megatron wants something more than a yes man for his army...and then he meets Starscream</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Greatest Dream

"Megatron, we've rounded up the survivors, as you asked," the one-time Pit boss snapped out. He pointed, to where straggling lines of shell-shocked, scarred, battered, and dispossessed mechs and femmes were being herded.

"Ought to slag them here and now!" snarled another, one of the more vicious Arena fighters. "Nothing but Vosian domestics and treacherous slag-heaps anyway!"

"Just try it, fumehead!" one of the others, a gladiator from Vos, screamed back. The pair would have erupted in battle right then, but a well placed shot at the turf between them reminded both who led here.

Megatron had a problem. These two were but one small example of it.

"Enough! Just as in Tarn, so here. They will be processed, told the truth behind the war, as I told you. The Overlord's grand scheme, to make the cities believe they still needed him, set Vos and Tarn at odds." His words soothed some, but his Tarnian follower showed his doubts in the belligerence of his features.

Megatron needed something, someway to fuse the battle-worn survivors into a cohesive army. "Find out if any among them held high rank," he commanded the one-time Vosian gladiator.

"Your wish, Megatron." The mech went down into the survivor fields to learn what he could.

`~`~`~`~`

It was nearly three joors later before the Vosian reported back. "Megatron, there is one you need to see. We've already begun culling the warriors away from the domestics, and there is a Seeker among them." The Vosian's voice betrayed something, some form of hope, perhaps?

"Not another one." Megatron would have enjoyed having the aerial advantage, but Seekers, by and large, were notoriously short-sighted, and he had yet to find a key to their motivations. Add in their rather dismal reputation for brains...and Megatron was curious why the Vosian would see this as a boon, until his mind flicked over which squads had flown for Vos.

There could be some use there, if the survivor was who Megatron now suspected it was. A potential end to his troubles with both the Seekers and the thorny problem of how to reconcile Vos to Tarn in the scheme of things, Megatron realized, if he could but find the key to this single Seeker.

`~`~`~`~`

By the time they made it to the fields, where those who were warriors had been rounded off to, there was a set of three Tarnian gladiators ringing what was clearly a Seeker. If Megatron remembered the coloration, his suspicions were quite correct, delivering him a sign that his luck ran in line with his desires for greater power.

However...he could not interfere, not if he was to be able to use this effectively. The Seeker below had to prove he could not be intimidated, or what Megatron was already planning in his head would fail. He stood back, one hand restraining his aide who wished to rush down to aid his fellow Vosian.

"We said you will fight for us," one sneered, pushing against the shoulder of the Seeker.

"You're a warrior; are you afraid to fight?"

"No, haven't you heard, he's a scientist." The word was sneered out, and another shove came, this one against the other shoulder.

"Pretty boy scientist, plaything of the cabal, puppet of..."

No more words came from that Gladiator, as the Seeker exploded in motion. Three precise blows the Gladiator never suspected landed and disabled his voder, his weapon arm, and his knee on the opposite side.

"Never, ever call me that!" came the hissing, high-pitched snarl from the Seeker, even as he was focusing a potent pulse cannon on the second of the pair.

"You....!" the third began, but the Seeker was already moving, swift on his feet, graceful even, forcing the fight into the terms he chose by disabling the one that had been slowest with a shot through the throat. It left him with one opponent, the biggest of the three, and he did not look like he minded those odds at all, despite the deep gouged scars in the Gladiator's plating.

Megatron was intrigued, never having suspected a Seeker could fight on land quite this well, but certain the Seeker was who he wished it to be. Few Seekers were known for their intellect, but Vos had been led by one, or so they said.

That intellect shone, as the bullish Tarnian charged, and the Seeker used the momentum against his opponent, whirling and firing with precision that none of his land based troopers had shown yet, knocking the Gladiator to his face with a disabled leg.

"It seems Vos's Lord is no sheepacron after all," Megatron said aloud.

"No, Megatron." The Vosian was impressed by his former Lord... and Megatron knew he could use that.

"They call him Starscream, yes?"

"Yes, Megatron."

"Invite him to me."

`~`~`~`~`

Starscream came in, his wings swept in a little, drawn tight. His faceplates sported a sneer, but the optics were scanning his entire environment from the moment he entered, taking in all that he could see and hear with an unusual amount of focus.

//Very much not a true example of the Seekers I have met so far,// Megatron mused to himself. He would not, he decided, bribe this one. Something in the way the Seeker'd reacted to the insults told Megatron to be careful of this one and giving him anything.

"Why have I been summoned? What right have you?!"

That tone, the arrogance, despite the wing posture of fear...struck a chord in Megatron. This ... this questioning, demanding tone from a mech whose world had been destroyed … was absolutely the kind of spirit he wished in each and every one of his Decepticons.

"The right of someone with more power than you have ever thought you possessed," Megatron informed him. "The right of someone who can show you the road to any power you can take for yourself...if you join me, Starscream."

Red optics glittered with lust for the power, naked want rippling through the Seeker. Then suspicion came into it, and he sneered again. "At what cost, bodyguard? I am Starscream, Lord of Vos, and I still have those who would rally to my call."

Megatron laughed, shaking his head, before he caught the wrist of the arm that snapped up in indignant reaction. His hand squeezed, just enough to make the dermaplating protest. "Do you really think you can beat me, Seeker? Do you even want to, when I can show you the path to vengeance? To power not given by any shadow government? You do not want to fight me," he purred. "You wish the destruction of those who took your city, who undermined your authority and left you vulnerable to Tarn, just as Tarn was manipulated to see Vos as the enemy."

The insinuations hit close to the Seeker's Spark, made him look interested, curious, and hungry all at once. "Vengeance? Claims that Tarn is not the true enemy? You mock me, when I know you are Tarn's greatest warrior." He pulled his arm back, though, when Megatron released the wrist.

"No, Starscream, I do not mock you. Tarn was as much the victim as your city, and all because of the shadow rulers of each city," Megatron crooned. "Set there by the fearful domestics that rule Iacon." He leaned in his own optics glittering. "Join with me, bring your people to me, Starscream, and see a Cybertron that rises from the ashes of this war into a power the galaxy will fear!"

There was a visible calculation, a transparent process of weighing the benefits and gains versus the costs. Decisions were reached...and Megatron saw the seeds of treachery in how swiftly Starscream decided matters. There would never be blind loyalty in this one, he knew.

"As you wish, my Lord Megatron. Vos is at your command, through me."

//Useful, for now. Dangerous in the long run. But I like it far more than the blind adherence of the arena-born.// He would guard against the former leader even as he reveled in the sensation of being named Lord by one of the elite Seekers.

"With you, Starscream, I foresee the fall of those who have used us so long."


End file.
